Mr. Epic and I were both pretty impressed by this hospital. The only real downside we could see was that it is under construction, which would be at most a minor inconvenience--it would take a bit of extra explaining to family members who want to come visit to help them find where they need to go.
There were a ton of upsides to this hospital. The nurse who gave the tour was very thorough and pointed in explaining many of the hospital's procedures which fall right in line with my birth hopes and expectations--immediate skin-to-skin, leaving the baby skin-to-skin with you for the first hour or more while they clean him/her up and do all that preliminary stuff they do, lactation consultants on call at all times, no traditional nursery--the baby stays with you, etc. It sounds like they are very natural childbirth friendly and the nurses are "on your side." This all sounds pretty great to me--I get definite positive vibes and optimistic feelings from this place.
The other local hospital is a bigger, busier hospital and we couldn't get in for our tour until November 24th. I'm wondering how I'm going to like that hospital compared to the one we toured last night--I'm going to venture a guess that it's going to feel more institutional (is that the right word?) and less reassuring, but who knows. I guess we are on top of things, getting started this early, and have plenty of time to make a good decision! It sure makes it feel that much more real, to do something as official as a hospital tour.
Did / do you have different hospitals to choose from? How did / will you decide?
The first hospital sounds eerily similar to mine - so much so that I began to wonder if it was in fact the same! I assume that indicates that lots of hospitals are now on-board with skin-to-skin, delaying bathing, etc, which I think is awesome (I get annoyed when someone cites their experience from a decade or more ago to bash all hospital births).
ReplyDeleteThat's great that your hospital was on board with all those things, too. I'm glad to hear it's likely a pretty widespread phenomenon! I'd read so many hospital-bashings and horror stories online, I had this idea in my head that hospital birth would be a lot less natural-friendly than it appears to be. I should've known they'd be just as up on the latest research as all of us internet-educated medical experts... ;)
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